


Operation: Sammy Smiles

by BriTheMudblood



Category: King Falls AM (Podcast)
Genre: Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-28
Updated: 2019-06-28
Packaged: 2020-05-28 08:40:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19390531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BriTheMudblood/pseuds/BriTheMudblood
Summary: Ben tries to throw Sammy an epic birthday party. Only problem is: he doesn't know jack about Sammy... like his age...





	Operation: Sammy Smiles

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by [MightyGlowCloud](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MightyGlowCloud/pseuds/MightyGlowCloud) in the [kfamchallenge](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/kfamchallenge) collection. 



> Here's my prompt for the KFAM Fic Challenge! I hope you enjoy ^-^

"I don't even know how old he is, Emily!' Ben rambled as the two walked down the aisles of the King Falls Grocer. They were taking a break from all their investigating to work on a new mission. Operation: Sammy Smiles.  
"Why don't you just ask him?" Emily asked, a small smile teasing her face as she browsed the decorative cake candles.  
'He won't tell me that," Ben snorted, "Besides, if I asked him, he'd know something was up and I want this to be as much of a surprise as possible. He can't know if this is going to work."  
"Don't be so dramatic, Benny!" Emily laughed, shoving Ben in the arm lightly. "I'm sure Sammy is going to love this whether it's a surprise or not. It's the thought that counts."  
'Yeah, but you know how down he's been lately. If he knew we were planning him a birthday party, he'd probably try to get us to stop." Ben sighed, feeling a little low now. "I don't even know if he likes birthdays, but after everything that's happened recently-"  
"He needs something good to happen and a birthday party is a good way to start." Emily smiled, placing a hand on her boyfriend's shoulder. "You're a good friend, Ben, and Sammy's going to love this."  
"I don't even know what he'd want in a party," Ben admitted, visibly relaxing at Emily's touch. He began to look at candles shaped liked numbers, but ultimately decided against them. He didn't want to guess a number in case he was wrong. "Do you think we can just spell 'old' in candles? That could cover our bases."  
Emily laughed and shook her head, not gracing Ben's idea with a response. Ben grabbed a random pack of candles just in case; he figured they wouldn't need a specific number if they couldn't figure out Sammy's age.  
"Why don't you just ask Lily?" Emily suggested as they made their way to cake mixes. Emily was going to be making Sammy's cake for their little promptu birthday celebration while Ben was in charge of everything else: guests, decorations, music, activities... gifts. Ben still wasn't sure what he'd get for Sammy, but that would be a problem for later. One thing at a time...  
"I _tried_ ," Ben sighed, "She just laughed in my face and told me to figure it out myself."  
"You know, I could try asking her." Emily grinned, picking up a cake mix box nonchalantly as if she didn't just suggest the worst plan Ben had ever heard.  
" _No_!" Ben snapped before realizing what he said, "I-I mean, you don't _have_ to... you know... _do_ that. Lily probably won't want to help out anyway. She and Sammy are still at arms against each other even though she's been staying with us these past few weeks."  
Emily chuckled again. "I was only joking, Benny."  
'Right..." Ben said letting out a sigh of relief. He cleared his throat before speaking again. "But- uh- anyways! I was thinking this things should be small, just between friends you know?"  
"That's a good idea," Emily nodded, also nodding at the chosen cake box before setting it in the basket. "Who were you thinking of inviting?"  
"Oh, just some friends." Ben shrugged, looking over decorations to see if any screamed out 'Sammy Stevens'. "I was thinking Troy and Loretta, Herschel, Ron, maybe Archie, Chet.... Us, of course..." Ben trailed off as he looked over pinatas. Sammy probably wouldn't be into that, unless he could get one specially made to look like Grisham or Frickard? Maybe.  
"Sounds like quite the guest list. Any idea what'll happen at the party or what you'll get Sammy?"  
"Not a clue, but I think I have an idea on how to find out..."  
+++  
"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. You are live with the Sammy and Ben show on this fine Friday evening," Sammy spoke into his microphone, trying his best to ignore Ben's furious scribbles into yet another- albeit _smaller_ \- notebook. Ben was up to something and Sammy hoped to whatever deity or almighty being that continued to screw with his life that this wasn't a new plan to get himself killed. "It's a little past the four o'clock hour and we're just cruising on by 'til the end of the night. What've you got on tap for us, Ben?"  
Ben started at the sound of his name, almost throwing his notebook of birthday plans into the air. "Huh? What'd you say, Sammy?" he asked, trying to hide the crack in his voice from his slight embarrassment.  
"I was asking what you had planned for the last part of the evening?"  
"Oh! Right!" Ben cleared his throat, "Well- uh- we've got Brent Shakespeare calling in at 5:00 to talk to us about his plans to begin performing his one-man renditions of various famous plays from throughout the ages."  
"Do any of those performances happen to be Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet?" Sammy asked, placing a hand to his chin in mock thought. "Ya know, I bet the guy would make a _killer_ Ophelia."  
"Actually, no. He sent me a preview of his line up and none of his shows are Shakespeare. Well, none of them are from _William_ Shakespeare." Ben said, shaking his head while looking through the list Brent had given him. "You'd think with him sharing the same last name as the guy, he'd at least do Macbeth..."  
"Does he at least claim to be a long lost relative?"  
"He told me he was William Shakespeare's great great great great nephew, twice removed." Ben scoffed, noting a small smirk grow on Sammy's face before quickly returning to it's natural, bored look. "I can't verify how true that statement is, but apparently he can so I'm sure he'd love to tell you all about his lineage at 5."  
Sammy chuckled. "Alright, fair enough. Better keep listening in, folks, it sounds like we've got a real thespian comin' in soon. But what're we doing until then?"  
"I figured we could go to the phone lines for now and talk about whatever's clever."  
"Sounds like a great time." Sammy nodded, watching Ben quickly write a note down in his little book once more. "Did you have any particular topic in mind or are we playin' Listener's Choice?"  
"Oh, you know, I thought we could take a stroll down memory lane for a bit," Ben said, not meeting Sammy's eye as he answered in what he hoped was a nonchalant tone. "We could talk about things like our favorite birthdays growin up or what an ideal celebration would be for a special age milestone?"  
"What, do you have a party to plan for Emily or something?" Sammy teased, reaching over to lightly punch Ben's shoulder.  
"Nope! No party here! Just- uh- just a topic I thought the listener's would enjoy discussing. Anyways, why don't you start us off Sammy? What's a perfect birthday celebration to you?"  
"I thought we were opening this to the phones?" Sammy asked, raising an eyebrow as Ben's face flushed.  
"We are! I just- um- _thought_ it would be _nice_ if _we_ started the discussions for once. shake things up and all."  
"Well, unfortunately for that, the phone lines are all lit up!" Sammy said, picking a button, "Lucky line 7, you are live on King Falls AM."  
"Goddamn it, Stevens, just answer the damn question!" a familiar, angry voice rang out through the station. "Some of us are tired of hearing Ben try to hint at you all night! Why don't you just tell us what kind of namby pamby _birthday_ _party_ you'd want to waste your time on so that goof can stop wasting airwaves trying to sneak it out of ya!"  
"Herschel, always good to hear from you. Are you telling me you know what's had Ben in a bunch all night?" Sammy asked, finally glad to be getting some kind of idea as to what Ben's been planning.  
"'Course I know! The little twerp had to let me know so's he could invite me to tag along!" Herschel snapped with a small grumble. "But I ain't goin' if I have to hear you two yakking about it for much long without actually sayin' anything. Now, are you gonna answer the damn question or am I gonna have to march up to that radio shack and beat it out of ya?"  
"No need for all that, I promise." Sammy said, chuckling lightly before thinking about it. "I guess I'd have to say an ideal birthday for me would be a small, quiet get together with family and friends. No fuss, nothing too extravagant, just me and my loved ones having a nice time together."  
"Of course you'd say that, ya freeloadin' tree-huggin' Commie." Herschel muttered. "Do ya hear that, Ben? Big City wants a quiet night in! Now, was that really that hard?"  
"Thank you, Mr. Baumgartner but that _really_ wasn't necessary-"  
"Of course it was necessary!" Herschel interrupted, "You weren't get anywhere by just beatin' around the bush, so somebody had to come out and ask!"  
"That's because it was supposed to be a _surprise_ , Mr. Baumgartner. Sammy wasn't supposed to know anything about it until we had everything set up." Ben groaned, letting his head fall onto a part of the sounboard.  
" _Surprise_? Back in my day, surprises weren't supposed to a good thing! The only time you were ever _surprised_ was when someone came up from behind to jump your ass in an alleyway." Herschel huffed, "Kids these days got it easy, what with their _nice_ _surprises_ and fancy schmancy telly-phones."  
Sammy raised an eye at Ben, but ultimately decided to discuss the matter later. Instead, Sammy cleared his throat and kept talking to Herschel. "So then, Herschel, what about you? Got any good birthday stories from your childhood?"  
"Bah! Back in my day, we didn't celebrate birthdays!" Herschel scoffed once more. "Bein' alive and kickin' was celebration enough. If you were lucky, you might not have gotten beat on your birthday."  
"What about as an adult? Any good times then?"  
"Eh,I guess so," Herschel conceded before going a bit quieter. "Edna- god rest her soul- liked celebratin' a lot more than I ever did, but we made sure to go out and celebrate every year, and I always made sure she got the best goddamn celebration a person could ask for. Same went for Cecil."  
"That was kind of you, Mr. Baumgartner, I'm sure she and Cecil appreciated every one of those celebrations." Ben said, finally returning to the conversation. "Thank you for sharing and for calling in tonight."  
"Yeah, yeah." Herschel grumbled. "Now stop talkin' about birthdays and whatnot before I shut you two off!"  
The line went dead with a swift click!  
"Goodnight, Herschel." Sammy said before looking to Ben with a teasing grin. "So, you're planning me a birthday party?"  
+++  
_"-Happy birthday, dear Sammy, happy birthday to you!"_  
A few days later, Sammy's party came along with huge success. It was exactly what he would have wanted in a party. It was just him, a few of his closest friends (and Lily, who said she was only there for cake), and a quiet night in with a few gifts. The singing had been a little unexpected, but the cake Emily brought out was well worth the repetitive song. It was even entertaining to hear Herschel join in, a few notes behind the rest in a bored drawl.  
"Did you really have to?" Sammy laughed, as he saw the candles spelling out OLD in big letters. "You could just ask me how old I am."  
"Yeah, I could." Ben agreed, nudging his best friend's shoulder. "But that would take some of the fun out of teasing you, _old_ _man_."  
"You're not that much younger than I am, you know."  
"Sure, sure. Just blow out your candles, Geezer, some of the guests are beginning to look antsy."  
The guest in question were mainly Troy and Herschel, both of whom had been eyeing the cake since the party began. "Well some of us _actual_ _geezers_ want to get on with it and eat." Herschel snapped, slapping both boys on the back of the head. "Now, you better blow out those damn candles before I break out the fire extinguisher."  
"Sir, yes, sir!" Sammy nodded, taking a second longer to grin at Herschel's impatience.  
"Well, get on with it!"  
"Mr. Baumgartner, Sammy's gotta make his wish first!" Troy argued, "That's mighty important on a day like today."  
"Bah! Wishin' don't do nothing for anybody!" Herschel said before muttering to himself, "If I could just wish for things instead of actually working for them, then I'd've been the richest goddamn bastard in the world by now..."  
"I think wishing is nice, Mr. Baumgarter," Emily added. "It can give a person a goal in mind to work towards."  
"Hm, well if you say so, Ms. Potter, then there must be some merit to it. You've got a good head on your shoulders, and sense to boot..."  
Sammy stopped listening to focus for a moment. He didn't know what he could really wish for that seemed feasible; wishing was always a silly practice to him, one he viewed as practically useless. But he figured he could wish for _something_ , if only for his friends and family. He wouldn't wish for anyhing impossible like peace on Earth or.... Jack back, but a small wish would do.  
_Here_ 's _to_ _more_ _times_ _like_ _this_ , Sammy thought as he blew out the candles. Cheers rang out as Emily began cutting and passing out cake.  
Sammy wasn't a big sweets guy, but he had to admit the cake was delicious. "So," Ben started, taking a seat next to Sammy and watching the rest of the group mingle and chat amongst themselves. "What'd you wish for?"  
"I can't tell you that, can I?" Sammy teased, "Then it won't come true."  
"Right, right." Ben laughed, "Like you believe that."  
"Maybe so, but some people do believe it despite my own thoughts on the matter."  
"Can you at least tell me if you're having fun?" Ben asked, turning serious. "And I mean like _actual_ fun, not you just pretending for my sake."  
Sammy looked to the crowd of friends and family in their small apartment, laughing and having a good time together before Sammy looked to Ben with the biggest smile Ben had seen on his face in months. "Yeah, I'm having the time of my life."  
Ben grinned back, silently celebrating the success of Operation: Sammy Smiles. "Good, man; I'm glad. That's what this was all for, after all."  
"There's just one problem..." Sammy said, laughing as Ben's face turned sheet white.  
"W-what is it?" Ben asked, prepared for the worst. The Science Institute was coming, Debbie was back, Frickard; with the luck the two had been having in the past couple of months, any number of bad things could be happening right now.  
"My birthday isn't actually until next month."


End file.
